This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from an application entitled A Lot Production Line of Air Conditioner earlier filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on Aug. 5, 1999, and there duly assigned Serial No.99-32127 by that Office.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a production line of an air conditioner, and more particularly to a production line of an air conditioner adapted to simultaneously produce an indoor unit and an outdoor unit at a common work bench.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Basically, an air conditioner includes a compressor, condenser, expansion valve, and evaporator. In a split system (or separate type) having an inside and outside unit, the outside unit will have a compressor and condenser. The expansion valve and evaporator will be in the inside unit. Both the inside and outside units are connected by a refrigerant tubing creating a loop.
Refrigerant vapor is compressed in a compressor to a higher pressure and temperature. It then goes to a condenser where it condenses to a liquid. It then enters the expansion valve and expands to a low temperature vapor and enters the evaporator and cools the air which is pushed through the evaporator with a fan in the inside unit. Refrigerant vapor then reenters the compressor. The above cycle then repeats over and over. The condenser is a refrigerant vapor and air heat exchanger in an air cooled condenser system. A second fan blows air through the condenser coil. It is very similar to a car radiator where a fan forces air through the radiator to cool the antifreeze. The evaporator is also a heat exchanger taking out the heat from the air to be supplied to the space to be air conditioned. The fan is used to move the air.
The indoor unit and the outdoor unit are independently manufactured and assembled at their respective production lines. Multiple work benches are stationed to do different aspects of the production line of an indoor unit placed on a pallet. In a totally separate production line for an outdoor unit, different work benches will be stationed for the production of the outdoor unit using a different set of pallets. The indoor unit and the outdoor unit have many distinctive components and the methods used ordinarily for the production of the units vary greatly. The vast differences have caused manufactures to have the separate production lines. However, by having separate lines, much space is lost and there is much more expense in maintaining two separate production lines. The time needed to produce a single lot of an indoor and outdoor unit is also increased.
An exemplar of the art is Sugiyama et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,1 55, Air Conditioning Apparatus with An Indoor Unit Incorporating a Compressor, May 27, 1997) discloses two unit air conditioning system. Other art also disclose two unit air conditioning systems such as in Takenaka et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,965, Air Conditioner, Nov. 25, 1997), Sugiyama et al. (U.S. Patent, Indoor Unit for an Air-Conditioning Apparatus, Sep. 9, 1997), Iwasaki (U.S. Pat. No. 4,104,890, Air Conditioning Apparatus, Aug. 8, 1978). Clark et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,464, Conveying Apparatus, Jul. 27, 1999) discloses background information on a conveying used in a production line. Kugo (U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,301, Assembly System for Assembling Product Comprising a Plurality of Parts, Mar. 17, 1998) discloses an assembly line in which many parts are assembled. Satandrea et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,883, Production Line for Pallet Mounted Electric Motor Stators, Dec. 22, 1987) gives background information on an assembly line for a mechanical device. Barnard (U.S. Pat. No. 4,228,573, Method for Assembling Heat Exchangers, Oct. 21, 1980) discloses a production line for rapidly assembling a heat exchanger.
I have found that none of the exemplar art teach the production of a separate type air conditioner in the same production line.
The present invention is disclosed to solve the aforementioned problems, and accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide a production line of air conditioner adapted to integrate production lines of indoor units and outdoor units to one work bench and to simultaneously produce indoor units and outdoor units on the same pallet for assembly and inspection, thereby reducing installation space and cost, and eliminating production time variation per line of indoor and outdoor units.
It is another object to have some of the same assembly processes applied to both the indoor and outdoor units, thereby reducing time.
It is a further object to have the same production line to produce both the indoor unit and the outdoor unit in order to reduce the space taken by the assembly line.
It is still another object to have a single lot of an indoor and outdoor unit complete at the same time, thus allowing for an equal number of indoor and outdoor units produced at the same time especially since both units are needed together for a functioning air conditioner.
It is another object in that production line variations per line are eliminated to shorten lot production time.
It is a further object in that performance inspection and finished product feeding and separation process are expedited and sectional inspection devices are integrated to decrease the installation cost.
In accordance with the objects of the present invention, there is provided a production line of an air conditioner, the production line mounted with a work bench for producing indoor units and outdoor units, the work bench including an outdoor work part and an indoor work part integrally installed and each part having a same length for a set of an indoor unit and an outdoor unit to be moved on one pallet for assembly and inspection.
In accordance with another object of the present invention, there is provided a production line of an air conditioner, the production line mounted with a work bench for producing indoor units and outdoor units, the work bench having a pallet supply section, an outdoor unit work part mounted at one side of the pallet supply section with a parts assembly section, refrigerant tube vacuum forming and refrigerant infusion section, refrigerant infusion tube removal section, control unit assembly section, refrigerant leakage inspection section, cabinet assembly section, packing section, forwarding and loading section in that order. An indoor unit work part is mounted at the other side of the pallet supply section with a first pallet feeding section, parts assembly section, noise inspection section, second pallet feeding section, packing section and forwarding and loading section in that order, and integrally installed from parts assembly section of the outdoor unit work part to cabinet assembly section. The performance inspection section mounted between the cabinet assembly section and packing section of the outdoor work part and also mounted between the second pallet feeding section and the packing section of the indoor unit work part is used for simultaneously inspecting the outdoor units and indoor units in performance thereof. The finished products feeding and separating section is mounted between the performance inspection section and packing section of the outdoor unit work part and also mounted between the performance inspection section and the packing section of the indoor unit work part for separating the outdoor units and indoor units from pallets and feeding the same.